Elon Musk Smokes Weed, Uses Flamethrower On Live Comedy Show

Elon Musk appeared on the Joe Rogan Podcast late Thursday night and talked to the stand-up comedian for two and a half hours talking about a wide assortment of things, including the Boring Company, AI, social media, Tesla, robots and sensory deprivation tanks.

More apropos, at time when there is an acute focus on his mental health, exhaustion, recreational drug use and an ongoing SEC investigation into his company, decided it would be great idea to publicly smoke a joint while drinking whiskey.

"I’m not a regular smoker of weed," the Tesla CEO said late Thursday on the podcast, which was shown live on the internet. Musk took one drag from what Rogan described as a joint containing tobacco mixed with marijuana, which is legal in California.

Much of the interview was relatively tame, discussing mundane topics like Musk's inspiration for coming up with the Boring Company flamethrower:

"In Spaceballs, Yogurt goes through the merchandising section and they have a flamethrower in the merchandising section of Spaceballs"

When further asked about the Boring Company, Musk did not exude confidence. At one point, Rogan asks Musk, "How does one decide to fix LA traffic by drilling holes in the ground? And who do you even approach with that?"

"I mean, I'm not saying it's going to be successful," Musk replied. He continued, "I don't see any other ideas for improving the traffic. So, in desperation, we're going to dig a tunnel. And maybe that tunnel will be successful and maybe it won't."

Rogan, baffled after several seconds, replied "Um, I'm listening".

"Yeah. I'm not trying to convince you it's going to work." concluded Musk.

Later in the interview when asked about how he manages his time, Musk told Rogan, "I think people like don't totally understand what I do with my time. They think like I'm a business guy or something like that..."

In fact, one could argue it sounded like he was trying to pivot. He continued, "...I do engineering and manufacturing and that kind of thing. That's like 80% or more of my time..."

Much of the rest was boring, especially by Musk standards with Joe Rogan constantly praising Musk for his endeavors, until Rogan lit up a spliff that he identified as half marijuana, half tobacco. Rogan often smokes pot or has a drink with his guests on his podcast.

"So is that a joint?" Musk queried Rogan after he lit it up. "Or it is a cigar?"

"No. It's marijuana inside of tobacco. You never had that?" Rogan asks back.

Recall, when Musk was asked by the NY Times about his proclaimed $420 go private price, he told the news outlet that he had "round[ed] up to $420" from $419, but that he was not "on weed" at the time:

He said in the interview that he wanted to offer a roughly 20 percent premium over where the stock had been recently trading, which would have been about $419. He decided to round up to $420 — a number that has become code for marijuana in counterculture lore.

“It seemed like better karma at $420 than at $419,” he said in the interview. “But I was not on weed, to be clear. Weed is not helpful for productivity. There’s a reason for the word ‘stoned.’ You just sit there like a stone on weed.”

* * *

At the end of the interview, Rogan asked Musk if he had any "message", aside from an earlier statement that "love is the answer" that Musk made. Musk responded with a strange statement that sounded like it hit close to home:

"I think, you know, people should be nicer to each other - and give more credit to others, and don't assume that they're mean until they're actually mean. It's easy to demonize people," Musk rambled on, "You're usually wrong about it. People are nicer than you think. Give people more credit."

By "people" Musk was clearly referring to himself.

Recall, Musk recently called Thai cave rescue hero Vern Unsworth a "child rapist", quadrupling down on calling him a "pedo" weeks earlier. He also called reporter Ryan Mac of Buzzfeed a "fucking asshole" in an e-mail after Mac requested comment from Musk.